Iran, So Close, So Far. Photographs, 2018. © Jorge Albella
Iran is the key crossing point of the ancient Silk Route between East and West, a country open for different cultures, and a specially a place of Contrasts: the vanguard in the city and the old tradition in the small towns with its mysterious tunnels and corridors of the adobe labyrinths, the hustle traffic, noises, and joy of people in towns and immense peace and solitude in the giant steppes.
Another significant and ironic Contrast is to see in front of the political and cultural isolation between the West and the Republic of the Ayatollahs, how close and open is the ordinary Iranian society to us, and the deep absence of barriers that traditionally the Iranian people show to the "Western foreigners", not pointing them with the impersonal interesses for just touristic business, but in the most human way, like for example the simple and spontaneous interess for a chat about life, family or history.
In October 2018 I decided to visit Iran for one month, and go down from Tehran to reach the southern Bandar Abbas, passing the desert steppes of Dasht-e Lut.
This project is divided in two series,"Iran, So Close, So Far", and "Moraghebeh, a Path to the Solitude", and with it I wanted to build an hypothetical bridge and make shorter the distances between Iran and the West, the same bridge that Iranians offer to us when we are in their country.
Jorge Albella
Berlin, January. 2020
Iran is the key crossing point of the ancient Silk Route between East and West, a country open for different cultures, and a specially a place of Contrasts: the vanguard in the city and the old tradition in the small towns with its mysterious tunnels and corridors of the adobe labyrinths, the hustle traffic, noises, and joy of people in towns and immense peace and solitude in the giant steppes.
Another significant and ironic Contrast is to see in front of the political and cultural isolation between the West and the Republic of the Ayatollahs, how close and open is the ordinary Iranian society to us, and the deep absence of barriers that traditionally the Iranian people show to the "Western foreigners", not pointing them with the impersonal interesses for just touristic business, but in the most human way, like for example the simple and spontaneous interess for a chat about life, family or history.
In October 2018 I decided to visit Iran for one month, and go down from Tehran to reach the southern Bandar Abbas, passing the desert steppes of Dasht-e Lut.
This project is divided in two series,"Iran, So Close, So Far", and "Moraghebeh, a Path to the Solitude", and with it I wanted to build an hypothetical bridge and make shorter the distances between Iran and the West, the same bridge that Iranians offer to us when we are in their country.
Jorge Albella
Berlin, January. 2020